Infra-red surveillance camera systems that send video signals to computer recording systems are used by the security industry to provide 24-hour surveillance of many buildings and facilities. Unfortunately, a major drawback of infra-red camera systems is that spiders nightly construct spider webs in front of the camera lens because their prey are attracted to the infra-red light. In addition to blocking the field of view, the motion of the webs continuously initiates video recording as a result of motion-detection recording-activation circuitry and software, which results in rapid exhaustion of the data-storage capacity of surveillance systems and a reduction in the number of days that surveillance systems can store video data before stored data is overwritten. Continuous activation of video recording increases the burden of reviewing the surveillance-camera recordings for specific incidents. Fog, driving rain, and condensation frequently obstruct camera lenses, and, when the moisture dries, leave stains on the lenses that further obstruct light gathering by the lenses. The lens of a surveillance camera needs to be cleaned regularly in order to ensure that clear images are captured by the surveillance camera and to increase the data-storage capacity of surveillance systems by preventing continuous activation of recording by spider web motion. Due to the generally high mounting position of surveillance cameras, conventional solutions include people climbing ladders with soft nylon brushes to manually clean camera lenses, or using a brush attached to an extension pole to regularly wipe the webs and dirt away. These processes are inconvenient, time-consuming, and expensive, particularly in the case of surveillance systems used for remote monitoring over the Internet. In addition, the manual cobweb removal may bump surveillance cameras out of position, resulting in additional labor and expenditures for re-aligning the cameras for proper viewing of a specific target area.